With more cash-strapped college students skipping meals to afford textbooks and living in cars or “couch surfing” to save money for tuition, some universities have added programs providing free food and helping students return to traditional living situations like apartments or dorms.

UC San Diego recently announced plans to add a free food pantry, Cal State San Marcos has a special counseling team for students in crisis, and UCLA has been called a national model for an aggressive program including food vouchers, free stays in vacant dorm rooms and zero-interest loans.

Advocates for struggling students applaud such programs but stress that more must be done to cope with a growing problem that threatens to force thousands across the nation to drop out of college. The problem has been blamed on tuition hikes, low wages of part-time student jobs, and shrinking financial support from parents.

“More schools are stepping up to the plate, but we’re just scratching the surface,” said Cyekeia Lee of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. “Many schools say, ‘We don’t have that problem here,’ because they don’t know how to deal with it, it’s bad for their image, or a little of both.”

Several students at San Diego State say they’re facing problems with hunger and homelessness and wish the school was providing more help.

“I had this plan to live in my van, shower on campus and figure out food the best I could, but I quickly found out there are basically no resources for students in my situation,” said Roy, a senior who asked that his real, full name not be used. “There’s so much food on this campus, but none of it is available to starving students. I had to go to different churches to get something — anything.”

Two other SDSU students said hunger has been the key issue facing them because financial hurdles forced them to continue living with their parents during their freshman year.

“Most days I eat once — today cookies were my breakfast and lunch,” said freshman Diana Estrada. “I’ve thought of transferring out and going to Southwestern Community College so I can struggle less.”

Mariam Sanchez, another freshman, said she didn’t want to delay buying her books so she was forced to nibble on small chunks of fruit from home all day during the fall semester’s first three weeks.

“It takes away all your energy,” she said. “It’s really hard for me to focus on lectures when I have no food in my stomach.”

SDSU officials say the university provides resources to financially struggling students on a par with UCLA, but that they are spread out instead of in a central location. But they also contend that problems with hunger and homelessness on campus have been exaggerated.

“We don’t have a resource center for homeless students, but we have people all over campus who are doing things to help,” said campus spokesman Greg Block. “I also think it’s not as widespread a problem as some think.”

The exact size of the problem is unknown because universities aren’t required to track homelessness. More than 30,000 students nationwide declared themselves homeless on federal student aid applications in 2013, the first time the question was included. This year, that number remained about the same.

Advocates for the homeless say the number is probably higher because students are reluctant to admit they have nowhere to live and because many don’t see bouncing from couch to couch as homeless. Many also say self-reported information is inherently unreliable.

Pastor Darrin Johnson of Agape House, a Lutheran-Episcopal ministry on the edge of campus, said students struggling with hunger and homelessness have become steadily more common during his five years at the university.

“Increasingly I’ve had kids coming in who haven’t eaten for days because they don’t have any money left,” he said. “Many of them also end up sleeping on friends’ sofas until they wear out those friendships — and some of them end up on the street.”

Johnson and several students are lobbying the university to make a public commitment to more aggressively addressing these problems. They’ve invited several campus officials to a Nov. 6 forum.

Regardless of how big the problem is, Reggie Blaylock, associate vice president for student services at SDSU, said the university needs to focus more on letting students know about available resources than adding anything new.

Blaylock said students who fall through the cracks are typically those with sudden financial hardships, because students who arrive at SDSU with money problems are connected immediately with helpful resources.

“The information has always been available, but when you’re 18, 19 or 20 you only pay attention to what you need,” Blaylock said. “We have to improve our communication.”

Blaylock said he doubts UCLA can help all students in crisis in one spot when the solutions could include counseling, employment advice, emergency loans and scholarships.

“The idea you can send a person to one place for every kind of problem is unrealistic,” he said.

Lee, the national homeless advocate, disagreed, saying that it’s crucial to have a single point of contact for students in crisis.

Blaylock applauded UC San Diego’s plans to add a food bank, but said that won’t solve the deeper root of the problem.